Group (collective) nouns
grammar rules

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Group (collective) nouns

Grammar rules with examples.

What are group (collective) nouns?

Group (or collective) nouns are nouns that have a singular form but they describe groups of people, animals or things.

Groups of people: family, police, team
Groups of animals: colony, flock, herd
Groups of things: bunch, bundle, set

Collective nouns and verb agreement

Group (or collective) nouns normally take singular verbs but they can also take plural verbs because they refer to groups of people.

Our family is going on holiday to Spain in summer.
Our family are going on holiday to different places in summer.

Collective nouns for animals

Learn which collective nouns refer to groups of animals.

a brood of hens, a colony of gulls, a swarm of ants, a herd of sheep, a flock of birds

Collective nouns for people

Learn which collective nouns refer to groups of people.

a board of directors, a caravan of travellers, a circle of friends, a flock of tourists, a tribe of Indians

Collective nouns for things

Learn which collective nouns refer to groups of things.

a bouquet of flowers, a fleet of taxis, a clump of bushes, a round of drinks, a range of mountains

Videos

Video on collective nouns

This five-minute video by a native speaker explains what the collective nouns are and how we use them in sentences.

Video with a song Animal Friends

This video contains a cartoon with a song on animal group names. Suitable not only for young learners.

Exercises on group (collective) nouns:

Group nouns exercises

  • PDF worksheets to download
  • online exercises with answers

See also:

English nouns Countable and uncountable nouns, singular and plural nouns, group nouns, compound nouns and proper nouns.

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